Nancy Pelosi and the Big Lie

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi blamed former President George W. Bush and the Republicans on Friday for the more than $9 trillion that has been added to the national debt under President Obama’s watch.

Pelosi argued that under Obama, the annual budget deficit, which contributes to the national debt, has been reduced dramatically, and said that without Obama’s work, the national debt would be even higher. She also mostly blamed Bush for not paying for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

“When President Obama stood on the steps on the Capitol eight years from next week, the [budget] deficit was $1.4 trillion — one year deficit,” she said. “It’s reduced by 70 percent in his administration. Much of the increase in the national debt that has occurred from this time still springs from two unpaid-for wars, cost that we owe our veterans following that, giveaways that they gave to the pharmaceutical industry, and the high-end tax cuts that have carried forward without any job production. Absent the work of President Obama, this national debt would be even higher.”

I am reminded of Mary McCarthy’s famous quote, regarding Lillian Hellman, “Every word she writes is a lie, including ‘and’ and ‘the.'” Every word Nancy Pelosi utters is a lie, all conjunctions and articles included. President Bush submitted a budget for fiscal year 2009, which included a projected deficit of a way-too-high $407.4 billion.¹ However, the Congress, then under control of the Democrats, with Mrs Pelosi serving as the Speaker of the House, declined to pass President Bush’s budget. Rather, after the end of FY2008 on September 30, 2008, Congress funded the federal government through the mechanisms of continuing resolutions, rather than normal budgeting and appropriations. Why? The Democrats believed, and rightly so, that Senator Barack Hussein Obama (D-IL) would win the 2008 presidential election, and they wanted to have appropriations made under a Democratic president, rather than having to bargain with a Republican. On February 17, 2009, President Obama signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 into law,² and on March 11, 2009, he signed the Omnibus Appropriations Act of 2009 into law.³

Simply put, President Bush’s largest deficit was a far-too-large $458.55 billion in FY2008. Had the Democrats followed standard procedure, and passed the budget and appropriations when they should have, he would have been responsible for the FY2009 budget, and deficit, but they refused. President Obama’s first four budget deficits were $1,412.69 billion, $1,294.37 billion, $1,299.59 billion and $1,086.96 billion.

The table shows just what has happened to budget deficits since then. Yes, they have come down, but they haven’t come down far enough; only zero would be far enough. Only the FY2015 deficit under President Obama was smaller than President Bush’s largest. The final FY2016 budget deficit, which was not reflected on the chart, came in at $587 billion.

The national debt stood at $10,626,877,048,913.08 on President Bush’s last day in office; having entered office with a national debt of $5,727,776,738,304.64, that means that $4,899,100,210,628.34 was added to the national debt under the younger President Bush. Trouble is, the national debt stands at $19,941,807,383,847.05 right now, meaning that $9,314,930,334,915.97 has been added to the debt since President Obama took office, and he still has a week left to go! The increase in the national debt under President Obama is just a shade under twice that added under his predecessor.

Nancy Pelosi lies, which is no surprise; we’ve known that for decades. What conservatives have to do is challenge those lies, always challenge them, never allow them to go unanswered, because to do so is to allow the left to control the conversation. We already know that, according to the Democrats:

They will only get away with that if we let them!
_____________________________Cross-posted on The First Street Journal.
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¹ – President Bush’s FY2009 Budget Submittal to Congress, Historical Tables, Table 1.1, found on page 22. Projected receipts: $2,699.947 billion; projected expenditures: $3,107.355 billion; projected deficit: $407.408 billion. This is a .pdf file.
² – The bill was introduced into the House of Representatives on January 26, 2009, after President Bush had left office; President Bush had nothing at all to do with it.
³ – The bill was introduced into the House of Representatives on February 23, 2009, after President Bush had left office; President Bush had nothing at all to do with it.